Green: The Countdown to Spring
April 08, 2020
With a new decade upon us and spring not too far away, there is something about the color green that seems particularly of the current moment right now. The color is something of an antidote to the modern world—even, you might say, a new way of life in the twenty-first century—and a green rug can add a balancing and transformative element to an environment. read more
Märta Måås-Fjetterström at the Royal Palace in Stockholm
February 18, 2020
In honor of the centenary of the founding of Märta Måås-Fjetterström’s studio in Båstad, Sweden, the Royal Palace in Stockholm is putting on a major exhibition of this influential textile artist’s work. From October 2019 to April 2020, the public will have a chance to view a selection of works from the collection of the Swedish royal family. read more
Ingrid Hellman–Knafve: the Seasons of Sweden
December 05, 2019
The sophisticated designs of Ingrid Hellman-Knafve (1906-2003) combine a subtle sense of nature-inspired color and abstract, geometric patterns. For most of her life Hallman-Knafve lived in rural Sweden and her carpets seem to reflect a highly tuned sensitivity to the changing seasons in Sweden’s beautiful coastal and forest landscapes. read more
Ingrid Dessau: A Swedish Designer in New York
September 03, 2019
The FJ Hakimian collection has four carpets by the mid-twentieth century Swedish textile designer Ingrid Dessau. All of these works are sophisticated compositions by an artist with an exceptionally refined sense of color and design. Ingrid Dessau (née Peterson, 1923–2000) was a master of her craft whose works are beautiful expressions of a type of sophisticated modernism rooted in Swedish traditions. read more
Elsa Gullberg-Design Pioneer
June 13, 2019
Elsa Gullberg could be called the mother of Swedish Modern. She was an extraordinary figure, far ahead of her time as a designer, a textile innovator, and an entrepreneur. Born in Malmo in 1886 into a bourgeois family, she had wanted to be a doctor but because of her father’s early death she was forced to take another, more traditional path for a woman in her time. read more
ANDRÉ ARBUS
May 08, 2019
This usual and beautiful carpet was designed by the inimitable André Arbus, one of the most celebrated French designers of the twentieth century. His distinctive style blends the tradition of French neoclassicism with the bold modernism of second quarter of the century. In this carpet we see a truly characteristic work: intelligent and luxurious, with a bold, curvilinear design, charming details, and an audacious palette. read more
THE HOUSE THAT MӒRTA BUILT... 100th anniversary celebration
February 26, 2019
Märta Måås-Fjetterström (1873-1941), a trained Swedish Textile artist was bit of a revolutionary - her life story and the subsequent establishment of the MMF Workshop is legendary amongst Textile collector’s world over. Today when a public institution or a Hollywood movie star wants something out of the ordinary to rest their eyes on, then the choice is often an MMF rug. read more
Pioneers of Abstraction: Hilma af Klint and Sweden's Textile Arts
February 18, 2019
The Hilma af Klint show at the Guggenheim was without question the New York art exhibition of the past year. This turn-of-the-century Swedish painter created a truly radical body of work in an abstract mode that preceded the works of the painters considered the fathers of abstraction Mondrian, Kandinsky, and Malevich. read more
The Tuareg of the Sahara
January 24, 2019
The Tuareg tribe of North Africa have long captured the imaginations of outsiders. These people of the Sahara, sometimes called the “blue people,” are instantly recognizable as the quintessential desert warriors. Among the members of the tribe, it is the men, not the women, who are veiled. They wear visually striking and elegant indigo head wrappings that protect against the harsh climate and stain their skin. read more
Finnish Innovations: the Textile Works of Greta Skogster-Lehtinen
December 10, 2018
Greta Skogster-Lehtinen was ahead of her time both as a pioneer of Finnish textile art and as an entrepreneur. Her textile designs are full of warmth and strength; earthy and crafted of vernacular materials, they evoke the natural world of the ancient Finnish landscape in a dynamic and modern visual language. read more